For Someone Whose Campaign is Broke, Eyman Pays Out a Lot of Money
Tim Eyman is doing the rhetorical equivalent of turning out his pockets with a sheepish grin on his face and saying "shucks mister, can you spare some free publicity?" 
Illustration by Tim Gabor
In his relentless flood of press releases, Eyman is attempting to cast himself as a populist champion, calling the opposition effort "Washington DC's most powerful labor unions' $3.4 million 'con' campaign." As to the pro I-1033 effort, Eyman quipped in an e-mail yesterday: "our side--zero, zip, nada--no TV, no radio, not even campaign signs."
Both of those characterizations are grossly misleading. First, as to the money coming from D.C. interests, the two biggest donors to the No on I-1033 campaign are national but Bill Gates cracked the top five donors and 597 other people or interest groups, of 625 total donors, are from Washington state.
And Eyman's campaign wasn't always broke. He had about $670,000, most of it from retired Woodinville investment broker Michael Dunmire and Bellevue real estate baron Kemper Freeman. (Along with a $250,000 loan.) He just had to blow through all the money up front trying to get the initiative on the ballot in the first place.
Between February and April, Eyman paid Citizen Solutions, owned by Roy Ruffino and Eddie "Spaghetti" Agazarm $510,000 to get all those signatures.
In fact, the vast majority of Citizen Solutions' business in the state is thanks to Eyman. Since 2003, he's steered $2.2 million to the outfit, more than 70 percent of their total haul from all clients, according to the Public Disclosure Commission.
Goldy over at Horse's Ass calls Ruffino an Eyman "friend" and has speculated in the past on their business relationship. The PI referred to the pair as associates in coverage of an initiative Eyman ran in 2004 to legalize slot machines. But Agazarm insists he and Ruffino are simply political mercenaries. "We do initiatives for anyone who needs the help and has some funds," he says. "We don't choose sides."
7 comment(s)
Tim Eyman says:
Here's what we wrote earlier this week:
It has been enormously beneficial to the YES I-1033 campaign to have the support of KIRO's Dori Monson, KVI's Peter Weissbach, KTTH's Dave Boze, KVI's Kirby Wilbur, KOMO's John Carlson, KXLY's Mike Fitzsimmons, KIRO's Frank Shiers, and other leaders on talk radio. Their voices in favor of I-1033 have been incredibly helpful countering Washington DC's most powerful labor unions' $3.4 million 'con' campaign. Their side -- $3.4 million -- our side -- zero, zip, nada -- no TV, no radio, not even campaign signs. While opponents try to buy this election, we have faith in average citizens to see through opponents' threats, lies, and scare tactics and recognize and support I-1033's voter control over taxes. And really, that's the reason opponents are going bonkers because they know it's easier to buy politicians than it is to convince taxpayers to raise taxes. Under I-1033, it will be the people, and not the politicians, who will have final say on higher taxes.
Posted On: Friday, Oct. 23 2009 @ 4:16PM
Tim Eyman says:
And here's what we sent out by in June during the signature drive:
RE: Eyman takes out a 2nd mortgage on his home to loan $250K to Initiative 1033 to keep its signature drive on track
These are tough economic times for everyone ... so donating to our initiative campaign this year has been a real struggle for all of you. Nonetheless, we're very pleased and proud and thankful that so far, the Lower Property Taxes Initiative I-1033 campaign has received 1752 individual donations from supporters throughout the state. And out of the 48,148 supporters who were mailed a I-1033 petition in February, an extraordinary 27,233 sent back a partially filled or fully filled petition -- and a bunch of them asked for more. Our supporters are super excited about I-1033.
But as the months progressed, I-1033's expenses for the signature drive were outpacing donations and so I reached a 'put up or shut up' moment -- I decided that it was a necessary sacrifice to provide a big loan to keep I-1033's signature drive on track. I-1033 is just too important to not do everything possible to help it succeed -- Washington's struggling taxpayers are counting on us -- we can't and we won't let them down. So, for the foreseeable future, your donations to I-1033 will not only be used to pay for the campaign's expenses for qualifying and promoting I-1033 this year, but also to pay back this sizeable loan.
I jumped off a steep $250,000 cliff -- please help catch me.
To date, we've raised a total of $649,553 (which includes my $250,000 loan). When the required number of signatures was 225,000 (from 2005 through 2008), the average cost to qualify for the ballot turned out to be $700,588. Now that the number of needed sigs has increased to 241,000 starting this year, that average cost to qualify will no doubt increase also. So we've still got a ways to go in fundraising before the fast approaching July 3rd deadline.
As the Pacific Northwest Inlander so colorfully wrote: An initiative season without Tim Eyman would be like a basketball season without Kobe Bryant. It would go on, but it would lack the color and drama that its star player brings to the court. http://www.inlander.com/content/newscommentary_initiative_season_washington_state
We need everyone's help to get I-1033 over the finish line. We've got just 25 days left to raise the funds and collect the remaining voter signatures necessary to qualify the Lower Property Taxes Initiative I-1033 for the ballot. Everything is moving along at a good clip, but we need everyone to pick up the pace. There has to be a big surge in these final days to make it. We need one last big push of $$$ and sigs. Working together, we can do this.
Posted On: Friday, Oct. 23 2009 @ 4:21PM
pParkerT says:
Why do we even bother with a representative style government, Tim, if we're not going to let the politicians do their jobs and make the hard choices about spending and taxes (and then let them be accountable on election day)? Why don't we just have a Simpsons style town meeting every month and vote on all the laws ourselves? Isn't that the direction you're really leading us?
What you're really trying to do is tie the hands my representative even though you don't live in my district. That's the real con that your initiative is trying to pull off.
Posted On: Friday, Oct. 23 2009 @ 4:28PM
Tim Eyman says:
Out of 3000 bills introduced in Olympia this year, Gregoire signed into law 580 of them.
1 citizen initiative is on the ballot and voters have a right to vote on it.
580 from representative democracy, 1 from the people. this is hardly the end of Western civilization.
But in 2005, Gregoire and the Democrats got rid of I-601's inflation-and-population growth limit. So from 2005-2009, we got their version of fiscal discipline. Totally unsustainable budgets when times were good, ending in an even bigger cliff when times turned bad finishing off with a $9 billion deficit.
Locke/Rossi in 2003 was a $23 billion budget.
Gregoire/D's in 2009 was a $30 billion budget.
If they hadn't repealed I-601 in 2005, we'd have ended up where we are today, but without a wrenching roller coaster and without a painful $9 billion deficit.
Without I-1033, the Legislature will do it all again. I-1033 will bring back I-601's fiscal discipline that worked extremely well from 1993 to 2005.
Posted On: Friday, Oct. 23 2009 @ 5:20PM
doggril says:
Once again, Mr. Eyman depends on a partial accounting of the facts to make his argument. Yeah, so Olympia passed a lot of bills. And Eyman is making money (or trying to) off of one initiative. But that one initiative could have a larger impact than anything Olympia passed this year. So to try to compare the impacts strictly by the numbers is like trying to argue that a serial petty thief is more dangerous than a guy who "only" killed one person.
So, yeah, Tim, I think you're dangerous to democracy because the snakeoil you sell is "simple answers to complex problems."
"Cut taxes for the wealthy!" isn't the answer we need right now; and I hope the measure goes down in flames.
Posted On: Friday, Oct. 23 2009 @ 8:32PM
Steve Zemke@msn.com says:
I-1033 is a wealth transfer scheme. It takes tax dollars paid by everyone and uses them to pay property taxes for just those that own property. It is a giant tax shift that hurts lower income folks and mainly benefits those with lots of property.
Danny Westneat’s article in the Seattle Times says it all with his headline “I-1033 A Windfall for the Rich” Read the article to find out more about the fatal flaw in I-1033 that will get people to vote No.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2010058262_danny14.html
As Westneat says
“He could have targeted his tax relief to help those who most need it. But he didn’t. This is the rotten core of his initiative.
Forget all the caterwauling about spending cuts. At its heart this is a massive giveaway to the rich that does little or nothing for the poor.”
A vote for I-1033 will help millionaires pay their property taxes. And one third of Eyman’s tax rebate goes to pay property taxes for commercial real estate.
If you don’t want your tax dollars to be used to help pay the property taxes for Boeing and Weyerhaeuser and Microsoft and all the other corporations and apartment owners and shopping mall owners and real estate developers vote No on I-1033. Keep Tim Eyman’s hands out of our pockets.
Posted On: Friday, Oct. 23 2009 @ 11:41PM
2cents says:
Those 3000 bills were vetted by committees and the 580 that passed required a majority of 49 Senators and 98 Representatives.
I-1033 was poorly written by a couple of lawyers and financed almost entirely by one millionaire. I hardly call that a "citizens" initiative.
Posted On: Saturday, Oct. 24 2009 @ 7:27PM